DRAFFENVILLE – Marshals Head Coach Gus Gillespie was more pleased with his team’s performance against Tilghman Friday than their previous January 12th meeting when the Marshals fell 62-48.
“Our game plan was with five minutes to go have it a three possession game and it was”, Gillespie said.
Down 54-46 with 4:18 to go, the Marshals were able to make it a five-point game with 1:36 left on the clock following free throws by D.J. Pigg and a four-point game following a basket by Dawson Jolley, but forced to foul in the closing minute, Tilghman hit five of six at the free throw line for the 63-57 win.
“There were times I felt like we were in control of the game in the second quarter and I felt like early in the third quarter we were really in control, but Tilghman is so talented, made some plays on us, hit some shots and changed the flavor of the game”, Gillespie said. “But I felt like our guys stepped up and did some good stuff.”
The Marshals trailed 13-10 at the end of the first quarter after trailing 10-4, scoring four points on four free throws by Aaron Reed and D.J. Pigg on a technical called on the Tilghman bench.
Reed opened the second quarter with a three that tied the game 13-13 with the Marshals going on to out-score the Tornados 19-14 to take a 29-27 halftime lead. The two teams tied the game four times in the quarter with the final two minutes of scoring coming from Skyler Smith with a three followed by a three by Sayveon McEwen, four straight points by Dylan Walters and a field goal by Pigg to end the first half.
Reed scored to open the second half to give the Marshals a four point lead and two ties later, Smith hit another three to stretch the lead back out to four again. Rodriguez Thomas and Pigg exchanged threes to keep the Marshall lead at 40-36.
The three by Pigg sent the senior over the 1,000th point mark in his career at Marshall County.
Thomas cut the Marshall lead to two with free throws which was the start of an 10-2 run by Tilghman that stretched into the fourth quarter for a 48-42 lead, out-scoring the Marshals by two in the final quarter on their way to a six-point win which extends the Tornados record to 18-4 while the Marshals fall to 12-9.
Pigg led the Marshals with 18 points, 11 points came from both Walters and Smith. McEwen led Tilghman with 26 points and Jesse Dunigan added 10.
Next week, the Marshals will play at Livingston Central on Monday, home against Mayfield Thursday and at Graves County Friday.
SCORING
Tilghman: McEwen 26, Dunigan 10, Thomas 9, Reed 7, Warfield 6, Belt 3, Prather 2
Marshall: Pigg 18, Walters 11, Smith 11, Jolley 8, Reed 7, French 2
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final | |
| Tilghman | 13 | 14 | 19 | 17 | 63 |
| Marshall | 10 | 19 | 13 | 15 | 57 |
